


Mr Brightside

by stephaneeneenee



Category: Fallout (Video Games), Fallout 4
Genre: Angst, F/M, Fluff, Sad, kinda dying, mild descriptions of sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-20
Updated: 2015-12-20
Packaged: 2018-05-07 22:35:17
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,791
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5473037
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stephaneeneenee/pseuds/stephaneeneenee
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It started with a kiss, it was only a kiss.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Mr Brightside

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Munflour](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Munflour/gifts).



> I wrote this for @Munflour on tumblr. We were talking and they brought it up and gave me a bit of an outline, so here we are. 
> 
> also, I'm so sorry I'm so bad at summaries. X_X

  ****

He hadn’t meant to do it, but he had. When her empathic blue eyes looked at him after killing Eddie Winters, and told him he was free now, he couldn’t help himself. The synthetic flesh of his left hand gently grasped her cheek and pulled her in. His lips found hers, and he was lost forever. She pulled back and looked at him with such adoration that it made his heart ache.

He couldn’t get the image of her then out of his head. Her red hair glistening in the sun, her blue eyes bright and her smile that conveyed so much emotion in that moment. He could have gotten lost in her right then. He pulled her small frame into his, resting his chin on the top of her head and held her there. He couldn’t bring himself to let go. He committed how she felt to memory; all soft curves and breasts against him. He let out a shuddering sigh.

“Let’s get going. We still need to find your son, Eztli.”

“I know, Nick. Just one more minute.” Her voice was quiet and husky, he knew she was holding back the emotions he couldn’t let out. She gave him a final tight squeeze around the waist and stepped back. “Okay, let’s go.” She smiled at him and grabbed his hand, running them off into the dangers of the Commonwealth once more.

\---

He had heard through the grapevine that she had found her son. He didn’t know the intricacies of how she did it, but he knew she had. It broke his old mechanical heart a little that she hadn’t taken him along. He understood, though, that she wanted to get out and see things through other people’s perspectives, but he wanted her for himself.

He wanted to bury his nose in her hair, let his hands roam her body, and tell her all the unspoken things he felt towards her. He knew that she had a different life now. He hadn’t even heard from her in months.

He tapped his pack of cigarettes on the desk and pulled one out. He placed it between his lips and lit it, taking a long drag while sinking into his chair. He missed her. He wasn’t going to lie about it. He absently ashed the cigarette, and took another long hit. He thought about her voice, her laughter. She wasn’t his to keep, except in his memories. She belonged to the Commonwealth, now.  

\---

A rad storm raged it’s way through Diamond City the next time he saw her. She stumbled into his office, half drunk and soaking wet. He could tell the rads had gotten to her. As she pushed open the door, he was there, wrapping his coat around her and catching her as her legs gave out from under her.

“Nicky, I’m sorry. I haven’t stopped by in so long.” She coughed as she finished speaking. He carried her to his bed and laid her down. He could tell she gained muscle and then lost weight. She was skin and bones at this point, though. He wasn’t sure if that was from the radiation or negligence of taking care of herself.

“Shh, Eztli. It’s ok. I understand.” He turned his back to her to grab some rad away to give her.

“I’m gettin’ married, Nick.” She slurred from behind him. He stopped, coolant flooding his systems as blood would run cold. “ I want you to be there. Please.” He turned to face her, she was barely awake, her eyelids drooping. He let out a fake cough and gave her the medicine.

“Go to sleep, you crazy girl. We’ll talk when you’re sober.” He kissed the top of her head and walked back around the corner. He threw himself into the chair at his desk and let out a low growl.

How could she come to him, irradiated, drunk and cold and lay that on him. Who even had she been with all this time? He shook his head and shoved a cigarette into his mouth. _Who took her from you, Nick?_

\---

He supposed he would always give into her whims. He found himself dressed up in a tux and standing at the front of a church full of people. The groom was a nondescript man, completely average in every way. _The complete opposite of you_ , his mind chided.

She came through the doors like a breath of fresh air. Her copper hair shining like he remembered, piled on the top of her head, her curves on display in a pretty pink pre-war dress, and a bundle of wild flowers in her hands. The average-ness of the man standing to the left of him infuriated him in that moment. She deserved the best, the most that anyone could offer her. Her blue eyes caught his glowing yellow stare, and she smiled. He just looked down at the floor. He had wished he had told her no, made up some bullshit excuse.

He couldn’t watch this. It border lined on torture. Yet, here he was. Watching the second woman he _loved_ , get hitched to some man. It made his skin crawl. He couldn’t watch. He knew he looked like a fool, standing there in front of everyone, staring at the floor, while she said her vows.

He left as soon as the ceremony was over. If he could get high off chems, he probably would have. He couldn’t believe himself that he stood there and let it happen. She was the one though, that hadn’t come around for months. She was the one that showed up on his doorstep and broke the news and asked him to be her “Man Of Honor”, she called it. He just couldn’t tell her no.

He loved her too much to break _her_ heart.

\---

He found himself up at Sanctuary one evening after working a case. He didn’t come to the settlement too much anymore. He knew which house she stayed in, he figured he would drop by while in the area. He came up to the house; she had fixed up one of the less damaged pre-war homes.

He heard soft grunts and groans. They sounded pained, so he followed the sound to the back of the house. He peered into the window. What he saw made him stop dead in his tracks.

Their naked bodies entwined, his completely normal, average hands full with her breasts, her head thrown back in ecstasy, her name ground out by his voice.

If he could blush, his face would have been beet red. He quickly turned from the window and walked back across the settlement. Walking away, without speaking a word to anyone. His world was suddenly upside down. He knew this would be how it was, but he had hoped, somewhere deep inside, that she would come home to him.

He didn’t stop until he got back to his office in Diamond City. Ellie was there and stood, ready to tell him about the stack of cases that had suddenly popped up.

“Leave,” He pleaded, “please.”

She gave him a withering look, shook her head and closed the door as she left. He walked around the corner, and sat on the bed that he didn’t even need. He picked up a stray can that was laying there and threw it as hard as he could at the wall, letting out a pained scream.

\---

The last time he saw her, she was clearly pregnant. She walked hand and hand with her husband through Diamond City. Whatever gears and systems that lay inside his metal frame stopped dead in that moment. He watched her sweet smile be thrown at this plain man she choose.

_It was one kiss, and I was lost in her forever._

He watched her finish picking up her supplies and and walk out of the city. He let out a breath he hadn’t realized he was holding. _She’s not coming back to you. She clearly loves that man, and not you._

\---

He became a shell of a man. He went through the motions of life, unfeeling, not thinking. Everything went on autopilot. He worked his cases, avoiding lover’s quarrels. He hardly left the office, unless necessary.

He had found himself lying in bed, staring at the ceiling for the millionth time since he saw her last. Ellie wasn’t there. He was alone. He decided to run a diagnostic.

And shut down.

\---

A soft knock sounded throughout the office.

“Nick?” The voice was barely audible.

_Knock, knock, knock._

“Nick?!” The woman’s voice sounded louder. She jiggled the handle of the door.

_It’s open!_

She turned the knob.

“Nick? Nick are you home?” Her own voice sounded frantic. She knew she needed to tell him that she left her husband after they lost the baby. She wanted to curl up in _Nick’s_ beat up camel trench that smelled of smoke and oil. She wanted _Nick’s_ hands and glowing amber eyes on her. She, after all this time, had come to terms that she loved Nick. She wanted _Nick_ , and nobody else.

She rounded the corner and saw him lying there. She shook him.

“Nick? Come on.” She whined. “Nick?... Nick?!” She laid her head on his chest, searching desperately for the sounds of his machinery twisting and turning inside.

“NICK!?” She screamed. “Goddamn it, don’t you fucking do this to me. Don’t leave me here, Nick. Please.” She sank to her knees beside his body. “FUCK! Nick, please. Wake up.” Tears rolled down her cheeks, one by one. A hard sob escaped her plush lips, and the flood gate opened. “Nick, I’m so sorry. I fucked up.” Her head fell on to his chest once more. She couldn’t stop the tide of tears streaming down her face. She had stayed strong through the fighting with her husband, through the raiders getting Sanctuary, through losing the baby, but she couldn’t be strong forever.

“Nick, I love you.” She peppered kisses along the ripped skin of his neck, her fingers tracing the cold frame work of his body tenderly. “I love you and I couldn’t even tell you. Shit. I’m so sorry. I’m so so sorry.”

A slight tremor rumbled under her. She lifted her head, and bright yellow eyes glowed dimly at her.

“I love you too, Eztli.” His gravely voice mumbled.

She smiled at him, and took his exposed metal hand into her warm, human fingers.

“Please, don’t leave me.” He whispered in her ear. She pressed her forehead to his, closing her bright blue eyes.

“I’m home now. You’re home to me, Nick.” His free hand reached around and pulled her lips to his, and he was lost forever in a sea of her once more.

 


End file.
